Engey Brahmanan by : Cho. Ramaswamy
An engaging story by Cho. With lots of questions and answers from Hindu scriptures it explains - or at least tries to explain who is supposed to be a 'brahmin'. The one who lives his life only by taking 'biksha' - that is by begging for food; the one who does not save anything for tomorrow; the one who studies vedas and scriptures, the one who does homams and yagas, the one who prays for everybody's benefit everytime he prays, the one whose only work is to teach others, who does not expect any material benefit for his teaching, the one who treats all his students equally, the one who imparts all his knowledge to his students - he is the one who can be called as 'brahmin'.
Cho goes onto show that nowhere in vedas or in bagwat gita, it is said that the 4 castes are based on birth.
It is pretty clear that there is none called as a brahmin these days in the true sense of the word!!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Out of Poverty : What works when traditional approaches fail
By : Paul Polak
To my mind, this is one of the most important books that I have read on the topic of poverty and how to get rid of the same.
The gist again, is simple : Go where the poverty is and observe it first hand. Live with the people for sometime and see why they are suffering. See what needs to be done to make them earn money for themselves.
No governmental organization and no world level organization - whether it is the gram panchanyats operated from Delhi or the world bank operated from God knows from where - tries to figure out why exactly people are poor.
Written by a man who has the personal experience and expertise on what he is talking about, and who started the International Development Enterprise (IDE), which is helping people around the world, this book is certainly an eye opener in thinking about poverty.
People are poor because they have no work sufficient enough to earn money. They don't have consistent work to get out of poverty. They may own land but they don't know what to sow and what agriculture they should do. They are all rain dependent. They are all people dependent. They also depend on a host of others for their equipment and so on. Can we get those equipments simplified? For example, can the drip irrigation be done at the fraction of the cost of how it is done in Israel? Can agricultural methods be taught to them so that they can get the crops going in a profitable manner? What are the practices which take away from making the profits? What makes agriculture very expensive? Can that be tackled?
Those are the questions the books asks. The author has lived in Napal. In India. In Indonesia. In vietnam. Where it really matters and has observed people in first hand. Has worked with them.
One simple line struck me : Don't give the rural poor people anything free. Teach them how to get work. Teach them how to make money and how to make it profitably. They can take care of themselves from then on.
Very true.
By : Paul Polak
To my mind, this is one of the most important books that I have read on the topic of poverty and how to get rid of the same.
The gist again, is simple : Go where the poverty is and observe it first hand. Live with the people for sometime and see why they are suffering. See what needs to be done to make them earn money for themselves.
No governmental organization and no world level organization - whether it is the gram panchanyats operated from Delhi or the world bank operated from God knows from where - tries to figure out why exactly people are poor.
Written by a man who has the personal experience and expertise on what he is talking about, and who started the International Development Enterprise (IDE), which is helping people around the world, this book is certainly an eye opener in thinking about poverty.
People are poor because they have no work sufficient enough to earn money. They don't have consistent work to get out of poverty. They may own land but they don't know what to sow and what agriculture they should do. They are all rain dependent. They are all people dependent. They also depend on a host of others for their equipment and so on. Can we get those equipments simplified? For example, can the drip irrigation be done at the fraction of the cost of how it is done in Israel? Can agricultural methods be taught to them so that they can get the crops going in a profitable manner? What are the practices which take away from making the profits? What makes agriculture very expensive? Can that be tackled?
Those are the questions the books asks. The author has lived in Napal. In India. In Indonesia. In vietnam. Where it really matters and has observed people in first hand. Has worked with them.
One simple line struck me : Don't give the rural poor people anything free. Teach them how to get work. Teach them how to make money and how to make it profitably. They can take care of themselves from then on.
Very true.
Secrets of a CEO Coach : Your personal training guide to thinking like a leader and acting like a ceo
by
D.A.Benton
Interesting book. Most of the points are the usual ones such as know what you are saying, walk the talk etc. But, what I found most useful are the set of questions. There are a number of questions that the author poses for you to think through. Right from your background, who your parents were, how happy were you in school and onwards to your responsibilities in your job. That walk through the entire life history throws wonderful insights into yourself.
I jotted down the points and I started answering them. It reveals lots of insights into the person that I am and why I relate to my job the way I relate to it. It also tells me a few things that I haven't really considered till now. To that extent, a very useful book.
by
D.A.Benton
Interesting book. Most of the points are the usual ones such as know what you are saying, walk the talk etc. But, what I found most useful are the set of questions. There are a number of questions that the author poses for you to think through. Right from your background, who your parents were, how happy were you in school and onwards to your responsibilities in your job. That walk through the entire life history throws wonderful insights into yourself.
I jotted down the points and I started answering them. It reveals lots of insights into the person that I am and why I relate to my job the way I relate to it. It also tells me a few things that I haven't really considered till now. To that extent, a very useful book.
A Bias for Action : How effective managers harness their willpower, achieve results, and stop wasting time
By : Heike Bruch & Sumantra Ghosal
I think I first read this book around 2005. I don't think I understood it fully then. But, I could appreciate the book a lot more when I read it again now.
The gist of the book can be summed up in one sentence : how do we get ourselves into purposesful, goal directed action taking? How do we ensure that our teams do this all the time?
Is it that we don't know what to do? And if we do know what to do, why is it that we don't do things which are critical to us? Which are critical to the organizational well being? What stops us? How can we break these barriers and move towards getting things done?
What is purposeful action? It is defined as consistent, conscious and energetic behaviour. How do we balance these with the experimentation and flexibility which are absolute must in organizations? How do we get deep personal commitment to that goal?
The authors come up with a simple 2 by 2 matrix to explain all the above. On x axis, you have` energy levels : low or high. On y axis, you have the focus. Low or high. You have 4 archtypes now. Those who are the frenzied : high on energy but low on focus. They just keep doing something to occupy themselves. There are the procrastinators who lack both the energy and the focus. These people harm all the teams and mar the organization. There are the detached. These are focused but are lacking in energy levels may be because a personal sense of commitment is missing. And, then there are those who are the purposeful who have high energy and focus levels and who come across as reflective and calm amidst chaos.
What is this energy? For people to be energetic, they must believe that the action to be taken and being taken is subjectively meaningful. They must be able to take proactive action and initiative. Their need to act should also come from whithin. And, only when they have exceptional energy levels, do they make exceptional efforts when tackling heavy levels of workloads.
Here, I remember Jack Welch's credos : Being energetic, Able to energise - are the key traits of a manager. Absolutely that is exactly what the authors are also talking here.
What is focus? It is the energy channeled towards a specific outcome. Focused managers are goal oriented. They keep moving towards achieving that one goal in spite of any obstacle being placed on their path. They ensure that all their activities are towards that goal and ensure that the activities don't clash with each other or detract from each other. Focus also requires phenomenal personal discipline. The focused manager must be able to concentrate on the job on hand, should be able to crystalise the actions that he needs to do and should be able to cull out meaning from the many noises surrounding his job and actions.
The book gives many case studies where people from different quadrants ended up in the high energy - high focus - purposeful quadrant and then pulled their companies out of the woods.
I enjoyed reading this book. I often wonder whether I have the required focus and energy levels to consistently do a great job for my company. And, if I lack either, how do I continuously prod myself to find the right levels of both.
By : Heike Bruch & Sumantra Ghosal
I think I first read this book around 2005. I don't think I understood it fully then. But, I could appreciate the book a lot more when I read it again now.
The gist of the book can be summed up in one sentence : how do we get ourselves into purposesful, goal directed action taking? How do we ensure that our teams do this all the time?
Is it that we don't know what to do? And if we do know what to do, why is it that we don't do things which are critical to us? Which are critical to the organizational well being? What stops us? How can we break these barriers and move towards getting things done?
What is purposeful action? It is defined as consistent, conscious and energetic behaviour. How do we balance these with the experimentation and flexibility which are absolute must in organizations? How do we get deep personal commitment to that goal?
The authors come up with a simple 2 by 2 matrix to explain all the above. On x axis, you have` energy levels : low or high. On y axis, you have the focus. Low or high. You have 4 archtypes now. Those who are the frenzied : high on energy but low on focus. They just keep doing something to occupy themselves. There are the procrastinators who lack both the energy and the focus. These people harm all the teams and mar the organization. There are the detached. These are focused but are lacking in energy levels may be because a personal sense of commitment is missing. And, then there are those who are the purposeful who have high energy and focus levels and who come across as reflective and calm amidst chaos.
What is this energy? For people to be energetic, they must believe that the action to be taken and being taken is subjectively meaningful. They must be able to take proactive action and initiative. Their need to act should also come from whithin. And, only when they have exceptional energy levels, do they make exceptional efforts when tackling heavy levels of workloads.
Here, I remember Jack Welch's credos : Being energetic, Able to energise - are the key traits of a manager. Absolutely that is exactly what the authors are also talking here.
What is focus? It is the energy channeled towards a specific outcome. Focused managers are goal oriented. They keep moving towards achieving that one goal in spite of any obstacle being placed on their path. They ensure that all their activities are towards that goal and ensure that the activities don't clash with each other or detract from each other. Focus also requires phenomenal personal discipline. The focused manager must be able to concentrate on the job on hand, should be able to crystalise the actions that he needs to do and should be able to cull out meaning from the many noises surrounding his job and actions.
The book gives many case studies where people from different quadrants ended up in the high energy - high focus - purposeful quadrant and then pulled their companies out of the woods.
I enjoyed reading this book. I often wonder whether I have the required focus and energy levels to consistently do a great job for my company. And, if I lack either, how do I continuously prod myself to find the right levels of both.
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